Wednesday 030730

Loyd performs the “Toes to Bar” by hanging from the pull-up bar and bringing his toes to the bar without bending his legs or arms.

Use USA Gymnastics to find a gymnastics meet near you. If you are working with your parallettes and rings you’ll find that every gymnastics meet you attend teaches you something valuable about human movement.

IronMInd’s Kettlebell takes standard plates that attach with super secure Bulldog II collars. We prefer the cast iron Kettlebell but this is a more flexible and cheaper alternative - two handles and collars for $100.

Thursday 030724

10 “Windshield Wipers”
With a 10RM load perform a very slow deadlift with a thirty-second travel to lockout and a thirty second travel to ground. Rest. Repeat for total of 10 reps.
10 “Windshield Wipers”

Tuesday, July 22 shows Loyd doing a “Windshield Wiper”. Both left and right positions constitute a single rep. If you can’t do the Wipers, struggle with them anyways for ten minutes before and after the deadlifts.

Wednesday 030723

Here from USA Gymnastics is a piece entitled “Why Gymnastics?” on the benefits of gymnastics by Bill Sand, PhD. of the University of Utah.

Congratulations to Michael Rutherford for winning our Hang Clean competition (Monday, 030714) and Brad Harakawa and Kelly Moore for winning our muscle-up competition (Thursday, 030717). The Clydesdale division of the muscle-up competition is still open for claim. Michael, Kelly, Brad let us know (Lauren@crossfit.com) what size and where to send your CrossFit T-shirts!

Sunday 030720

Weighted walking lunge/push-press for 400 meters.

Four lunge steps, alternating legs, followed by 5 reps of push-press repeated through 400 meters. Rack and press from back, front, or alternate at will. Rest when and where needed but clock keeps running.

Divide load carried (pounds) by time to completion (seconds) and post to comments.

Friday 030718

Row 1K
Tabata Snatch
Row 1K

Max effort on rows. Rest as needed before and after Snatch efforts. Tabata protocol is 20 seconds of work followed by 10 seconds of rest for eight intervals. Post row times and Tabata Snatch score (load and fewest reps of 8 intervals) to comments. E.G. 3:10, 155 lbs. 6 reps, 3:21.

Thursday 030717

A CrossFit "Forging Elite Fitness" t-shirt will be awarded for the most consecutive muscle-ups in each of three divisions: open class, women, and Clydesdales (200 + lbs.).

This breaks the three-way tie (Brad H, Robb. W, and Loyd L.) from the CrossFit Journal muscle-up contest! If you still don’t have rings check this out and do as many pull-ups and dips as you can in as few sets as possible in thirty minutes. Don’t let a lack of rings limit your fitness.

The one arm barbell deadlift gives great opportunity to train midline stabilization and control. Work slowly and diligently to keep the load from distorting your posture – do not tilt towards the load.

Great grip practice! Keep the bar level. Both ends of the bar should leave and find the ground simultaneously. (Practice your hook grip.)

Another sit-up - this one from the USAWA. Ancor the feet, and sit-up keeping the arms locked well behind the ears.

"If I had a formula for bypassing trouble, I wouldn't pass it
around. Wouldn't be doing anybody a favor. Trouble creates a capacity to handle it. I don't say embrace trouble. That's as bad as treating it as an enemy. But I do say, meet it as a friend, for you'll see a lot of it and had better be on speaking terms with it."

Tuesday 030715

Dave Leys is performing a “crucifix”. Starting with two dumbbells locked out overhead, lower them until the arms are locked and horizontal. Though non-functional, this is a fun exercise. Mixed with handstand practice the crucifix is great training for an inverted cross on the rings. When you are able to lower dumbbells totaling your bodyweight to horizontal, hold for five seconds, and return to overhead you’ll be strong enough to hold, and pull-out of, the inverted cross.

Saturday 030712

Inman Mile

From the U.S. All-Round Weightlifting Association, USAWA: “The lifter will have loaded onto his/her shoulders a weight equal to 150% of bodyweight. The lifter will then carry the weight a distance of one mile. Gait is optional. Resting is allowed, but neither the lifter nor the weight may be supported. Records will be kept in both pounds and time. Should the weight be touched by any aide once the lift has begun, the event is terminated. The lifter may be handed refreshments during the lift.”

This is hard, and for many impossible. Start with 150% of bodyweight and see how far you can take it. Then, if not able to make the mile, rest and start again with largest load you estimate can be carried for a mile regardless of time. Post load, bodyweight, and time to comments.

You’re looking at a triathlete, CrossFit style. Greg had never done or practiced for a triathlon before this summer’s Police and Fire Games. We don’t do “aerobics” or distance training at CrossFit, but that doesn’t stop our athletes from turning in winning performances in triathlons, adventure races, or anything else they enter.

Anaerobic training (in both PC and Glycolytic pathways) across multiple and widely mixed functional movements confers an athletic capacity that readies an athlete for strong performance at any task. Athletes so trained are no less developed aerobically than any marathoner, cyclist, swimmer, or triathlete. Period.

This is a tough sit-up, really tough. We found some gravity boots at a garage sale for $4. Jimmy Baker, looking great and pushing 60, is reaching for the bar with the boots attached to the bar. On the right, "Young Zack" demonstrates the same “hanging sit-up” in our ankle harness and ring-spotting rig.

Wednesday 030709

There are movements that will never make it to your local gym and they include some of the best exercises ever known. There is a collection of them known as “the odd lifts”. It would be foolish to ignore these lifts. It would be even more foolish to approach them with other than extreme caution.

Some of these lifts place enormous demands on stabilizing muscle; others are very functional. Some are as demanding of cardiorespiratory function as running, while others train for teamwork or coordination.

From USAWA United States All-Round Weightlifting Association, check out these lifts:

The two-man clean and jerk is a staple of the All-Round Weightlifting Association. Here, Tom and Kevin work out some of the kinks in their cleans learning to synchronize movements. Interestingly, their final compromised effort was a big improvement on both lifters’ technique.

Monday 030707

Stairmaster has discontinued the Gravitron and used ones are becoming tough to find. Everyone needs more pull-ups and dips and the Gravitron has been a flexible tool for both developing a pull-up and dip in untrained people and for increasing pull-up and dip volume post exhaustion in more advanced athletes.

Friday 030704

Complete 30 rounds:
Left leg squat
Right leg squat
Muscle-up

Complete workout whether or not you can perform the one-legged squat or muscle-up. Find a method of assistance if needed for either exercise. One legged squats are performed with the non load bearing leg held out straight in front.

From the July ’03 CrossFit Journal, “The Clean”, this picture shows the foot placement for the clean. The inside and forward foot position is the foot placement for the pull and the wider and rearward posture is where the bar is caught on diving under. The general direction of the clean is up and slightly backward.

Coach Derek Ray of the Florida Police Corps has made effective use of swimming drills in his CrossFit programming. (Florida’s cops swim.) There aren’t many programs combining the clean and jerk with swim sprints! Here, Derek's cadets do poolside sit-ups.